


In the Company of Crows

by nerdzeword



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: AFTG Reverse Big Bang 2021, Anarchy, Ghosts, I have used that tag multiple times now, Kevin is a zombie, M/M, Magic AU, Mentions of Violence, Model Trains, but magic, general disregard for authority figures, general omens of death, grave robbing, idk how i feel about that, is it really murder if it's a moriyama, laila and alvarez are private detectives, literal ray of sunshine jeremy, mentions of torture, necromancer!jean, riko is an asshole as usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 12:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29874384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: Jean always knew he was cursed. It was something intrinsic, like a constant ache in his bones. The sky was blue, water was wet, and Jean Moreau was cursed.In which Jean leads a quest, fights his inner demons, and makes some friends.
Relationships: Alvarez/Laila Dermott, Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau, Kevin Day & Jean Moreau, Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: AFTG Reverse Big Bang 2021





	In the Company of Crows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Graystern](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Graystern/gifts).



> Finally done! Much thanks to @bishieprotag who did the beautiful art! 
> 
> A very special thanks to Jade and Madison for being my lovely betas and letting me scream in the gc. Not all heroes wear capes.

Jean always knew he was cursed. It was something intrinsic, like a constant ache in his bones. The sky was blue, water was wet, and Jean Moreau was cursed. Kevin tried to tell him that it wasn’t true, repeatedly. Jean hadn’t ever believed him when Kevin was alive, and he certainly wasn’t going to start now that his best friend was just a pile of bones and organs held together by Jean’s magic and a few scraps of hope. 

There was no way Jean would have ended up in this situation if he wasn't truly cursed. Only cursed people had dead best friends and weirdly solitary ravens following them around. (Jean didn’t actually know why it followed them around, or even which one of them it was following, but it had been his and Kevin’s constant companion since its first appearance, and he was fairly certain it was another side effect of the curse.)

Only cursed people had this sort of misfortune.

“Hi! Oh, wow, this is the first time anyone else has been held here with me! I’m Jeremy! What are you in for?” 

Jean rolled his head to look at Jeremy, a bit baffled. “Why do you care?”

“Because you’re the first cell mate I’ve ever had! It’s like we’re destined or something!” 

Jean narrowed his eyes at the other man. “Destined for what?”

Jeremy shrugged, unperturbed by Jean’s hostility. “Friendship, love, rivalry, hard to say. The waters of fate never flow smoothly.” Jean just stared at him for a long moment, taken momentarily aback by the fact that he wasn’t completely disgusted by the idea of a romance of some sort. Jeremy was pretty, in a bright and cheery sort of way. His hair was the sort of blonde you only really saw in the movies, with just enough of a curl to make it look intentionally messy. Paired with the bright orange pants and patched up jean jacket he wore, he looked like he could have walked right off of a movie set. He was the sort of person you looked at and never quite believed they were real. Jean still wasn’t quite sure he was real.

“Trespassing,” Jean finally commented, giving into the man’s weird thrall. Jeremy gasped.

“Amazing! Where at? Tell me everything!” Jean groaned softly and closed his eyes, he really needed to stop doing dumb shit. He was in a  _ jail cell _ , he really shouldn’t be announcing his crimes to the world at large. No matter how easily he could get out of an actual charge. 

How the hell did he end up in these messes anyway? It was probably Kevin’s fault. It was usually Kevin’s fault somehow. This time was definitely Kevin’s fault. If he hadn’t fallen into the open grave they had been excavating, Jean wouldn’t have had to spend time and energy putting him back together, and they would have been out of the graveyard before they were caught. Or before Jean was caught. Kevin had somehow managed to retain his ability to vanish at the first sign of trouble in death, despite the fact that he no longer had reflexes.

“Not a fan of talking huh? That’s fine! I’m here because I was protesting the burning of the Amazon. Did you know they’re trying to level it? Hundreds of thousands of unique variations of plant and animal life would be wiped out in one go! It’s horrific!” Jeremy continued talking, Jean didn't think he cared if he was actually listening or not.

“So now I’m just waiting for my friend to get here and bail me out. Renee has a rich girlfriend who likes to spend her parent’s money on things they would hate, so it works out well for everyone.” Jean stopped listening as he heard the sound of familiar footsteps approaching the holding cell and reopened his eyes. Kevin always seemed to walk heavier these days, as if he wasn’t quite used to his own weight. Which Jean thought was probably an accurate assessment, seeing as Kevin was basically just a ghost that was possessing his own body.

“It’s about time,” Jean grumbled to his friend as he stood up. Kevin was wearing one of his worst disguises. He had a bright orange fox shaped baseball cap on - complete with ears, and a pair of sunglasses that did next to nothing to actually hide the fact that his pupils could no longer dilate. His outfit itself would not have been out of place on a middle class golfing dad, and Jean vowed to never let Kevin pick his own disguises again. 

“Woah. You’re Kevin Day!” Jeremy blurted out. Case in point. Kevin froze but Jeremy just carried on. “I thought you were dead!” 

“He is,” Jean responded, walking towards the cell door. 

“You are! Oh wow! There was a whole conspiracy about your death. I’ve seen all the youtube videos. Dude. Now I wanna know which person was right, if I start listing off theories, will you tell me if I get close?”

“Jean!” Kevin hissed at him. Sometimes it felt like it didn’t even matter that his best friend was dead since he still acted like a mother hen, and Jean couldn’t tell the difference. This was one of those times. 

“Kevin!” Jean mocked in return. “It’s fine. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

“Just because he’s one of us doesn’t mean - just look at -” Riko. Even now, neither of them could bring themselves to say that name. 

“Kevin, for the love of god, could you please just get us out of here? We can talk about this later.” Kevin made a discontent noise but pulled the pins out of the door hinges so he could pull the door off. 

“Oh my god. That’s so smart? How was that so easy? Wait, how many times have you guys done this that you knew how to do that?” Jeremy babbled, delighted. 

“Too many,” Kevin grumbled. “Though trespassing is a new one. Usually we get caught breaking and entering.”

“And that one time they managed to get us for insurance fraud,” Jean commented lightly as he followed Kevin out the doors. He gestured for Jeremy to follow them. Kevin would hate it, but Jean would feel bad leaving him in there. Jeremy was too nice for jail. He followed them with a gleeful spring to his step.

A little known fact about jails was, while magic was dampened inside the cell, as soon as you left the cell itself, it was a simple matter to throw up an illusion spell or an anti-detection spell. It was a tried and true method that had worked for them dozens of times, and even the addition of Jeremy didn’t seem to throw it off. Jeremy did however make their next steps slightly more complicated. If only because Kevin had to stop in the middle of the hallway and be obstinate about letting Jeremy tag along on their jailbreak. Jean won, and Jeremy followed along behind them, cheerfully humming a little tune as they walked right out of the main lobby doors. They set off down the street with no real goal other than to leave the police station behind.

In truth, Jean didn’t really know why he wanted Jeremy along so badly. (Other than the spite induced glee he achieved by just _ knowing _ Kevin hated it. Kevin was his best friend, but he was also the  _ worst _ .) The fact remained, he had never really cared for anyone else’s company before. Hell, he had never even chosen Kevin despite the amount of time they spent together these days. The idea that Jean was not only okay with, but  _ looking forward  _ to spending more time with another, live, person was mind boggling. He wasn’t sure he liked it.

There was something about Jeremy though that drew him in, like maybe what Jeremy had been saying about them being destined was true and not a load of nonsense. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once. Jean wondered if it was like something that he had read about once, it was an article in some discarded magazine, and talked about how certain people just connected better than others, and went into the science behind why those people required far less energy to talk to. He had thought it was a bogus article when he read it, but perhaps there was a sliver of truth to it after all.

“So what is it that you guys do anyway?” Jeremy asked curiously. “I mean, I know what Kevin used to do, before he...You know. But I’ve never heard of you, Jean.”

“Petty crime,” Kevin muttered. Jeremy laughed, as if Kevin were the most hilarious person in the world. Jean wondered if he ever ran out of words. If Jeremy were some sort of foil to Jean in a fucked up ‘opposites attract’ way, then maybe Jeremy got all of the words Jean couldn’t say. That would be ideal actually, Jean hated talking to people. 

Their raven companion alighted atop a lamppost nearby, and Jean gave it a halfhearted glare. Where had it been when he was being thrown in jail?

“Wait, seriously?” Jeremy asked. 

Kevin smirked. “Not always. Sometimes it is very serious crime. And every so often, we will do things legally. Or rather, we do things under the table for more reputable sources.” 

“Speaking of reputable sources.” Jean stopped walking and watched as two figures approached. 

“Jean! How lucky to see you here!” Alvarez called out. Laila sighed.

“You say that as if we weren’t just at their place looking for them. Honestly babe.”

“Ooh, he’s new!” Alvarez grinned at Jeremy, who smiled back brightly. Jean rolled his eyes. If he didn’t know already how great they were at their jobs as private investigators, he would have written Laila and Alvarez off as weirdos and kooks ages ago. He was well aware that they were the best at their jobs, and if they were coming to him for help, they really were stuck.

“He’s in training. What do you need?” he asked them, a bit more brusquely than he intended. They didn’t take offense though, they never did. 

Laila gasped “A baby Sherlock!”

Alvarez hip checked her partner out of the way and leaned in close. “We need your help, just a small favor really,” she crooned, throwing an arm around his shoulders. Jean shrugged her off, as Laila elaborated for her partner. 

“We need to find the list of contacts Tommy Madderson made before he died last week. Rumor is he hid it rather than letting it fall into the hands of someone who would destroy them.”

“Has he been buried yet?” Jean asked wearily. Jeremy’s eyes ping ponged between them with open fascination. Kevin looked like he was bored out of his mind.

“Nope. He’s still at the morgue, and we can even get you in there today!” Alvarez singsonged. Jean sighed wearily, he  _ did _ need money. 

“Alright fine. Let’s go.”

“You know Jean, one day you’re going to have to tell us how you do your Sherlock Holmes shit,” Laila said conversationally. 

“And give you a reason to stop paying me? I don’t think so,” he retorted. He liked Laila and Alvarez, despite himself. In the months he and Kevin had been in town, he had built up a sort of rapport with them, and if he were anyone else, he might have even called their relationship friendly. Jean wondered if they also fit into that energy scale he had previously written off. Now that he thought about it, he did have an easier time talking to them than he did most other people.

  
  


Laila and Alvarez let them into the morgue with a set of keys Alvarez pulled from her coat pocket. Jean didn’t ask questions. It was one of their rules actually. He didn’t ask how they had keys to the city morgue, and they didn’t ask him how he managed to find out information that he had no business knowing just from inspecting bodies.

Not that that was what he did of course, but Laila and Alvarez didn’t have to know that. They also didn’t need to know that Kevin was dead, or that Jean had been using his necromancy to not only get them the information they needed but also rob people blind. It was amazing what people were willing to reveal to you after they died.

“Why are you still here?” Kevin asked Jeremy snidely, as Jean walked up to the freezer door, doing his best to ignore Kevin’s awkward attempts at interrogation.

“You guys are far more interesting than the Netflix I would otherwise be watching.” Jean could feel Jeremy’s grin from behind him.

“Are you sure you want to stay?” he asked before pulling out the corpse. 

“Of course!” Jeremy responded brightly. Jean shrugged and pulled the dead guy out of his freezer drawer.

The door to the morgue clicked shut behind them, leaving only himself, Jeremy, and Kevin in the room with the recently deceased Mr. Madderson. He supposed he probably could have left Jeremy outside with Laila and Alvarez, but because he had told them Jeremy was in training it would be weird if he had, and besides, he was a fellow witch, so Jean wasn’t nearly as concerned about hiding his abilities. A part of him also whispered that it was a test. Better to shake him off now than to wait until he was really attached. 

He pulled the sheet off the top half of the man’s body and drew a quick spell on his chest, pressing it in with the smallest push of his magic. The thing about necromancy was that as long as you were working on raising them only temporarily, it was actually incredibly easy to bring someone back to life. The problem was, of course, keeping them there. No one really wanted to be dead, but the dead didn’t have the energy to power themselves, and Jean wasn’t willing to spare the energy to keep more than one zombie around on a permanent basis, thank you very much. 

“Where did you leave your list of names?” he asked the dead man, cutting directly to the point. He had learned the hard way that if you let people come to terms with their reanimated states, they were less likely to actually say anything useful, and were more likely to try and make their way back to their old lives.

“They’re hidden in a box under the loose floorboard on the stairs. Only my son Justin was ever informed of their location.”

“And the rest of your hidden assets?” Jean asked, making a mental note to make up some sort of story to warn Laila and Alvarez not to trust the son. That was the thing about these people, the ones with enough money to pay for PI’s like Laila and Alvarez, and the motivation to do so, they were always after something. Money, fame, property. Usually money. 

Which meant that the dead almost always had some sort of assets hidden away in secret bank accounts or hidden bunkers. They somehow never seemed to question why Jean might need to know that information.

“All of my assets have been handed to Justin, except-”

“Except?” Jeremy whispered from behind them, entranced.

“My late daughter’s accounts. I couldn’t bear to close them after her death, and they are all in her name, so Justin may not know of them. Do not let him have them. They should go to a reasonable cause. It is what she would have wanted,” he told them seriously. Jean nodded back, just as seriously, and took out a pad of paper to jot down the account information. When he removed his power from the spell, the man’s body fell back onto the table with a small thunk.

  
  


When they had gotten back outside after sending Laila and Alvarez on their way, information in hand, Jeremy turned around to look at them with an uncharacteristic air of solemnity. “So. The two of you are grave robbers, Kevin is a reanimated corpse and you sometimes solve mysteries? Did I miss anything?” 

“No, that pretty much covers it,” Kevin commented, watching Jeremy with a glint in his eye that warned Jeremy to tread lightly. 

“Does that mean your specialty is necromancy?” Jeremy turned to Jean, bearing in on him with the full force of his bright eyes. With every piece of Jean’s life that Jeremy put together, he let go of another shred of hope that he might, maybe, possibly be getting close to someone that wasn’t his dead best friend. He ignored the voice in the back of his head that said he shouldn’t have tested Jeremy so soon.

“Yes.” He didn’t bother beating around the bush and hardened his resolve. He hadn’t made a mistake. If Jeremy was going to leave them behind, he would rather he did it sooner rather than later.

“What? Did you say yes?” Jeremy still looked surprised for some reason. “Dude! That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to meet a necromancer. For a while there, I thought that I might be a necromancer, since plants would die whenever I was sad, but no. I just make things grow. Fuck, that’s so cool though! Have you done anything really exciting with it? Not that you’re not exciting, Kevin, but fuck dude,  _ necromancy. How cool is that?”  _ Jean was a bit overwhelmed by Jeremy’s sudden enthusiasm, if he was being honest. No one ever  _ liked  _ necromancers. They were useful, sure, but people like Jean weren’t just  _ accepted _ by society. 

“I- What do you mean by exciting?” he asked, a bit afraid at what Jeremy could possibly qualify as exciting. The man saved the amazon on the regular, what could someone like  _ Jean  _ possibly offer him? 

“Oh, you know, made a zombie army, helped little lost ghosts find their homes. That sort of thing.”

“Uh, no.” 

“Huh. No time like the present! Oh hey, Jean, can I-” Jean turned to look at Jeremy when he cut himself off, just to receive the full force of his puppy dog eyes. 

“What?”

“Can- canItouchyourmagic?” Jeremy let out in one breath. Jean blinked at him. Touching someone’s magic was not as intimate as it sounded at first. It was used by employers to find where their employees might work best, and by teachers to discover what subjects someone might be struggling with. Hell, some people left their connections to their friends or significant others open all the time so they could communicate telepathically. It wasn’t that intimate, except for Jean it was. The only people Jean had ever willingly let touch his magic were his parents and Kevin.  _ And now apparently Jeremy, _ he thought miserably as he started nodding despite himself. He wondered if Jeremy had some sort of siren blood in him. His ability to make Jean agree with everything he said was honestly starting to make him nervous.

“Really? Oh wow, I bet your magic feels really cool. I’ve never touched a necromancer’s magic before, but I’ve always sort of imagined it sort of inky? Does that make sense? That probably doesn’t make sense.” As he spoke, Jeremy reached out with his magic and let out a delighted gasp when they touched. Jeremy’s magic was warm and fresh, like the sun warming your skin as the cool spring breeze rustled your hair. His magic was green and welcoming, and everything that Jean’s was not.

“It’s purple!” Jeremy was apparently elated by this information. He let his emotions roll over Jean through their newly opened bond and let out a small giggle. “Oh! Oh wow! That’s a huge quest you have there. That’s almost like a- OH MY GOD Are you the chosen one!?” Jeremy let go of his connection to Jean with a surprised snap, like the recoil on a broken rubber band.

“No!” Jean snapped. “No. I’m just a nobody.” Kevin made a small distressed noise, and Jean had to turn to look at him. 

“Kevin. What aren’t you telling me?” 

“Well…”

“Kevin.” 

“Okay so I may know how you got handed the chosen one quest, but I promise I had no idea it would do that.”

Jean stomped up to him, and leaned in threateningly. “Start talking.”

“Okay so I may have been the chosen one, prophecy and everything. I think it was inherited from my mom, who was the previous chosen one. But I thought that the task would just be handed to the next generation or something when I died. But apparently…”

“You’re telling me that I’ve inherited your magic quest, what because I was the one that killed you? What the hell Kevin!”

“I didn’t know it would do that!”

“And you couldn’t be bothered to tell me that you were the chosen one before I stabbed you?”

“It wasn’t like I wanted to be the chosen one!” 

“And you think I do? We already have targets on our backs, we don’t exactly have the time to go running around on a magical quest! Need I remind you, that if I die, you also die.  _ For good _ this time.”

“Wait wait wait. We’ll get back to how you  _ stabbed him _ in a minute, but dude! You didn’t even know that you had inherited a quest? It’s so big! And you even have the raven!” Jeremy pointed at the raven, who squawked indignantly, then looked between them in shock. Jean had to wonder who the hell this dude was, that he was willing to just put a pin in something like  _ murder _ . 

Jean shrugged. “I kind of just assumed that the raven was just another sign of how cursed I am.” The raven gave another indignant squawk 

Kevin rolled his eyes. “I told you, you’re not cursed.”

“You don’t know that. You inherited a quest. Maybe I inherited a curse. I know nothing about my family, anything is possible.”

“You can’t have a quest and a curse at the same time,” Kevin argued.

Jean rolled his eyes at Kevin’s foolishness. “Of course you can, what if the quest is to remove the curse?”

“Wow. As enlightening as this conversation is, we should really be figuring out what your quest is.” Jeremy looked more amused than annoyed at their bickering. “You said you had a prophecy, Kevin?” Kevin gave Jeremy a jerky nod. 

“What do you mean, we?” Jean demanded. 

“Well, someone has to help you out because it’s obvious that neither of you knows what you’re doing, and I’m on probation, so I can’t get arrested again for like, six months, which means I have nothing better to do right now.” Jeremy shrugged pleasantly. 

“Fine. Fine. What’s your plan then?” Jean replied, giving up any pretense of disagreement. He was just going to agree with Jeremy on everything from now on. This was fine. Jeremy grinned in delight as Kevin made a dramatic squawking noise. 

“Jean-”

“Excellent! Not to brag, but I am  _ basically  _ an expert on quests. Not that I’ve had one of my own, mind you, but I have read everything there is to read on them, and my mom was once assigned a cool quest to go return some faeries to their homeland. That’s how she met my dad actually.”

“Are you saying you’re part faerie?” Jean asked dryly.

“Haha no, but that would be cool! Nah, my dad isn’t even magic, he’s a gardener.”

“So you came upon your specialization honestly then,” Kevin retorted, obviously still upset that his protests had been ignored. 

“You could say that, yeah!” Jean was baffled by the sheer amount of enthusiasm that Jeremy possessed. “Right! Anyway! What you guys need is an npc. Someone to tell you where to start. Oh wait! If you have a prophecy, we should start with trying to hear that!”

“How would we even go about doing that?” Jean asked wearily. 

“Easy! We talk to my friend!” 

“Oh boy, friends,” Kevin said, completely deadpan. 

“What does your friend have to do with prophecies?”

“Hm? Oh Andrew knows everyone and everything, if he doesn’t know how to get into the Hall of Prophecy, his husband, Neil, will. Andrew seems super cold and unapproachable, but he’s really just a teddy bear on the inside. Though, I wouldn’t say that to his face. He’s also really good with knives?” 

“Lovely,” Kevin said dryly.

Jeremy’s friend apparently owned a bar. Not just any bar either. He owned Eden’s, a bar that had a reputation in the magic community as stocking all of the weird fey alcohol, and having a zero tolerance policy for bullshit. Jean had never been, but there was something familiar about the bar when they walked in nonetheless. Jean couldn't for the life of him figure out why that was, until he heard the soft sounds of someone singing in imperfect french coming from the back room. It was an eerie song, and one that Jean could distinctly remember his own mother singing to him when he was small. Before… everything. He felt a little faint from the wave of nostalgia that crashed over him upon hearing the tune. Few people even knew he still spoke French, it had been years since he had even heard his mother tongue.

“Welcome to Eden’s,” a bored voice rang out over the empty bar. They were early, none of the usual crowd had arrived yet, just a small sprinkling of day drinkers and groups of friends hanging out for dinner. Jean had a feeling that by the time it got dark, the bar would be crowded with people looking for a good time, or just to forget.

“Hey, Andrew!” Jeremy chirped, bouncing over to the bar. Jean ignored the hot press of jealousy that burned in his chest at the sight of Jeremy’s excitement. 

“Jeremy,” the man greeted with a nearly imperceptible smirk. “Got out of jail again I see.”

“You know I never stay long!” Jeremy didn’t seem bothered by Andrew’s snide tone. The singing had stopped at the sound of Andrew’s voice, and another man appeared from the kitchens. 

“Oh, it’s you. Hey, Jeremy,” the man greeted.

“Hey Neil!” Jeremy grinned back in response. There was something familiar about both Andrew and Neil, though Jean was sure he had never met either of them before. It was something in the way they moved - as if always assessing the room for threats - that reminded him of his time at the nest. Most interesting however, was the fact that Kevin seemed to actually recognize Neil, and not just in the way that most abused people could recognize another survivor. 

“What is it?” he asked Kevin while the men were distracted by Jeremy.

“The redhead. I know him. Sort of. He was supposed to join us in the nest, but he disappeared.”

“Interesting. You think he has something to do with… him, then?”

“No. I think he may have the same feelings about him as we do though.”

“Are you certain?”

“No. I’m not certain about any of this, Jean, you know this. How do we even know that we can trust Jeremy?”

“I have a feeling.”

“Are you willing to risk both of our lives on your feeling?” Jean was spared from having to answer by Jeremy calling out to them. 

“You should explain it to Andrew and Neil, they can help!” Jeremy grinned at them. The raven, who had taken up her usual perch on Jean’s shoulder, eyed him doubtfully, though none of them actually contradicted Jeremy’s assessment.

“Why don’t we snag a booth and talk there?” Neil suggested. Andrew called someone to the bar, then slid into the booth next to his husband, while Jean slid into the place next to Jeremy. Neil then activated a series of carefully disguised silencing arrays that were built into the table, and Jean knew just from looking at it, that anyone standing further away from the table than Kevin, who hadn’t even tried to sit, would never be able to hear a word that was said, no matter how hard they listened.

“Right. So what is this about then?” Andrew crossed his arms and leaned back. “Speak.” 

“Jean? Do you want to explain?” Jeremy asked. Jean shook his head in response. Jeeremy took it as the permission it was, and started to explain. 

“...so yeah, now we need to find a way into the Hall of Prophecy.” Jeremy ended his tale with a conclusive head nod. Andrew stared at Jeremy for a solid minute, before raising his hand in what was apparently a call for a round of drinks, as the new bartender hurried over with a tray of shots. 

“I’ll help you out. IF-” Andrew slid one of the shots across the table to Jeremy. “You have a drink with me.” Jeremy chuckled nervously and picked up the shot, but his hand was shaking minutely, and it was obvious that he was uncomfortable with the thought, so Jean took the glass from his hand. 

“I’ll do it for him,” Jean told Andrew with a glare that stated exactly how he felt about Andrew abusing his friendship with Jeremy like that. Andrew stared back at him, seemingly unperturbed by the change of plans. Jean threw back the shot, wincing as it burned his throat on the way down. He was out of practice. Kevin hadn’t felt the need to drink since he died, and Jean had never felt the need to drink the way others had, so he just… hadn’t. 

“Fine. I’ll help you, but it’s now your job to make sure this idiot stops doing things to compromise his health in the name of helping people.” Jean came to the uncomfortable conclusion that Andrew, and likely Neil too, knew exactly how he felt about Jeremy, and this was somehow their weird way of performing a shovel talk. Jean wasn’t quite sure it was necessary, as he was fairly certain Jeremy was just  _ like that  _ and Jean was in no way special to him. But he kind of appreciated the fact that Jeremy’s friends were willing to go to such lengths to protect him.

Andrew wrote an address down on a napkin and passed it over to Jean. “Here’s where you need to go. Talk to Dan.”

Jean took the napkin and stared at it. “Right.”

“Great. Now get out of my bar. I have actual paying customers to help,” he told them. Jeremy laughed and shuffled them out of the booth, but Jean had the distinct feeling he had missed something hidden in that exchange.

It was nearing dark when they left the bar, so they made the decision to wait and visit whoever Dan was the next morning instead. Which of course meant they had to decide where to spend the night. Jean was perfectly content going their separate ways for the night, and meeting back up in the morning, but Jeremy insisted that it wasn’t a true quest unless they had a sleepover and shared a bonding moment. 

“That’s not how that works!” Kevin protested. “You can’t  _ force _ a bonding moment!”

“And why not? It’ll just be our own personal bottle episode!” 

“What does that even mean?!” Jean thought Kevin’s outrage was hilarious, so he agreed that Jeremy could spend the night, if only out of spite. 

All Jeremy had to do to get Kevin on board as well, was to point out that he wouldn’t know that the ‘bottle episode method’ didn’t work unless they tried it. Jean swore he was the only actual adult present. 

Jeremy and Kevin had started a betting pool on the concept, which was only furthered by Jeremy’s insistence that they had to recreate the perfect sleepover setting in order for it to work. Which was how Jean found himself digging through the closet of the room he and Kevin had been renting for any spare blankets, while Jeremy piled anything soft he could find into a nest on the floor. 

Kevin scoffed moodily at them, but he was the one who found the christmas lights hidden in the back of one of the cupboards, and the first to burrow his way into the blankets once their makeshift nest was complete. It wasn’t until they were all bundled into the nest, practically on top of one another, watching a random show using Jeremy’s Netflix on Kevin’s laptop that Jean finally let himself wonder if this was actually his first ever sleepover. 

He wasn’t really prone to thoughts of his previous life, before his parents had sold him to the Moriyamas to pay off their debts, and maybe it was the resurgence of the long forgotten memory of his mother’s song, or the two years he had been away from his captors, but Jean found that the childhood memories didn’t hurt as much anymore. 

Even so, he was almost certain that he had never had a sleepover before, even back then, unless he counted Kevin, which he did not.

“Jean?” Jeremy whispered later that night. Even the string of Christmas lights had been turned off, so it was just the three of them lying in the dark, Jean and Jeremy both teetering on the brink of sleep.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask why you killed Kevin?”

“I’m surprised it took you this long,” Kevin stated dryly. 

“It was the only way out. Kevin was too famous to be able to just slip underground the way the rest of us could.”

“Why actually kill him though? Why not just fake his death?” Jean couldn’t be sure, but Jeremy didn’t sound judgmental about his methods, just curious. 

“Because we couldn’t take any chances. We only had one shot to escape, and we couldn’t risk Kevin getting discovered. It would have been the end of both of us,” Jean responded quietly. Jeremy had been right. It was far easier to say things when they were all lying on the floor together in the dark. Kevin would be so mad about losing the bet in the morning. 

Dan lived in a simple two story walk up not too far from Eden’s. Jean couldn’t help but wonder how a person who lived in a house so completely normal, could be the one to help them track down a prophecy. It turned out that while the house may have appeared normal from the outside, the inhabitants were anything but. The man who opened the door was tall, taller even than Kevin, who until that moment, had been one of the tallest people Jean knew. Jean felt a bit like he was speaking to a giant. 

“Hi! We’re looking for Dan!” Jeremy chirped cheerfully. 

“Oh! You must be Andrew’s friends! Neil mentioned you might be stopping by. Come on in! Dan is just letting off some steam in the back.” Jean assumed that meant Dan was working out or something. What he did not expect was the elaborate model train system that spanned the entire room. 

“What the hell?” Kevin muttered to himself, but loud enough for everyone to hear. A person, Jean assumed it was probably Dan, popped up from behind a large mountain that had a track running through it, seconds later a model train came barrelling out of the tunnel, whistling a pleasant tune and blowing rainbow colored bubbles. The person had evidently not noticed them yet, as she was still swearing up a storm and running around the table to flip various switches. The train tracks began to split ahead of the train, breaking off and rebuilding in time to the music from the train. The new track built its way through the air and wrapped around the room back towards the doorway where they were still standing. 

“Watch out!” Dan called from her place by the switchboard, finally noticing them. Matt grabbed Jean and Jeremy and pulled them down out of the way as the tracks rebuilt themselves right where they had been standing. Kevin was not so lucky. The tracks knocked him back into the wall with a hard thud, and he scowled at the train as it slowly rolled to a stop. In front of his face.

Dan snatched the train from the air and waved the tracks away as if they were a simple nuisance. “Ah. You must be Jean and Jeremy. And.. Friend? Sorry about the train. She likes to go, but I haven’t quite trained her to stop yet.” 

“...right. Are you Dan?” Jean asked her cautiously. 

“That’s me! Neil said you’re wanting to get into the Hall of Prophecy?”

“If you could?” Jeremy responded cheerily. 

“Sure, got nothing better to do today, and this girl could use a cool down.” She patted the train fondly, and Jean pretended he didn’t notice the train give a shake as if it were preening. 

“Shall we go then?” She dusted off her hands on her overalls, and pulled her curls back from her face. 

“What, now?” Kevin said.

“Why not? No time like the present! Though… hm.” She walked around Kevin, eyeing him carefully. “Yeah no, the spellwork on you is masterful - Your work Jean? Thought so - but it’s not quite enough to get you to the hall, Friend here will have to stay here with Matt.” Jean shot Kevin a grim smile at the sight of his offended face. Kevin could do with some new friends, and Matt seemed nice. 

“Right. Well, we’re going to take the closet, Matt. Jean, Jeremy, stick close, I’m not  _ technically _ supposed to do this. But Amber has been on my case about the prophecy shortage for the past couple of months, as if  _ I  _ control the prophecies - anyway, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” She flung open the hall closet door and shoved both Jean and Jeremy in without so much as a warning. 

Jean landed on the floor in a heap, with Jeremy on top of him. 

“Sorry sorry sorry!” he laughed as he clambered to his feet, pulling Jean up as he went. Jean didn’t know what he was expecting when he heard about the Hall of Prophecy, but it certainly wasn’t a normal office building. And he  _ really  _ wasn’t expecting to get there via teleporting closet. He wondered if this was a normal method of transportation in the magical community. He didn’t remember any teleporting closets in his childhood, but then again, he also did not have anywhere close to a normal childhood either, even for a witch.

“What? Did you expect some sort of mysterious cavern or something?” Dan asked, amused as she walked out of the closet that evidently led to her own hall closet. 

“No but- ” Jeremy started, but cut himself off. Dan just laughed. 

“Come on, the filing cabinets are this way.” She led them down a maze of corridors to a room that hosted only a wall of filing cabinets. Dan scanned the names on them and tapped her fingers. 

“Lets see, Moreau right?”

“Um. It might be under Day?”

“We can check both.” Sure enough, tucked between Kaylie Day and Mark Dayton was a file that read  _ Day, Kevin. _

“Awesome! That was easier than expected!” Jeremy said.

Dan looked amused. “What, did you expect your quest to be all high stakes adventure?” 

“I mean, a little yeah.” 

“Tip for you, quests are only as exciting as the questgoer makes them. Let me just run and make a copy of this for you, then I’ll take you back so you can rescue poor Kevin from my husband.”

As it turned out, Kevin didn’t need rescuing as he and Matt had somehow bonded over old magic tournaments and were gleefully tearing old reruns apart on the couch when they returned. 

“Looks like you guys had fun,” Dan commented. “Are you guys planning on going right away, or do you want to stay for lunch?” she asked. 

“I don’t-” 

“Why don’t we read the prophecy first, then decide?” Jeremy offered. 

“Ooh yes! I want to hear what you guys are going to get up to! I’ll start a betting pool with Neil and Andrew, it’ll be great!” Matt turned to face them, excited. Dan rolled her eyes at him, but joined him on the couch anyway. Jean pulled the photocopy from his back pocket and opened it up to read. 

The raven star foretells sorrow.

A hard war to be won.

The star of light foretells serenity. 

A new era will dawn.

The dog star foretells peace. 

A new family will grow. 

And of the ashes of broken destiny, 

The future now is yours to know.

Jean stared at it for a long moment, trying to process it. “Okay, but what does this have to do with the chosen one?” he asked Kevin, who just gave a stiff shrug.

“Fuck if I know.”

“Damn. That is quite the prophecy. Usually, they’re like, a couplet or something. I saw a haiku once too. This, this is a lot.”

“And none of it makes any sense.” Kevin sounded close to whining. 

“Well, if I had to guess, I’d say the two of you are now sharing the prophecy, so congrats on that I guess,” Dan carried on. “I mean, you can certainly try and solve it if you want. It’s your prophecy, I think the place to start would be to discuss the main lines. So, what would bring  _ you two  _ peace and serenity?” Dan leaned back against the couch and crossed her legs. It sounded like the sort of question she asked every day. Which thinking about it, it probably was. 

When he thought about the actual question though, he was less certain. Jean didn’t really think anything could bring him peace. Not in the way he really craved. Not in the way he’d had with his parents. 

“I mean, not having to worry about hiding would be ideal I guess?” Jean thought out loud. 

“That does sound nice,” Jeremy agreed. Jean didn’t think he was thinking of the same sort of hiding Jean was. Jeremy had all of these friends, and he would probably have no problem making any more. But more importantly, he had a community of people like him that he could go to when he felt alone. He didn’t have to hide  _ all the time _ , changing clothes and cities the way some people changed tv channels. No matter how many close calls he may have had with those without magic, Jeremy had never had to hide every aspect of himself from the world in fear of being hunted. Not the way Jean and Kevin did. 

For as long as Jean could remember, he and Kevin had only had each other. They only had each other to help them learn to control their very different magics, they only had each other to talk to or lean on or help dress their multitude of wounds. 

That hadn’t changed, even after they had escaped the nest. Kevin was the only one Jean could talk to, or lean on, or rely on for help. They couldn’t be known by the people with no magic, because they would just end up where they started, pets for the rich and entitled, or worse, used as weapons. But they  _ also  _ had to be careful about who they trusted in the magic world, because most people weren’t like Jeremy. They didn’t like or trust necromantic magics, and they especially didn’t like people who killed and then brought back their own best friends. 

Jeremy probably didn’t get it. But as Jean watched him talk and laugh with the others, he thought that might just be okay. 

“So who exactly is this Nicky person again?” Kevin whined as Jeremy followed the directions Matt and Dan had given them to the little out of the way cafe on the other side of town. They were walking again, despite the fact that Jeremy apparently had a car, and the knowledge needed to actually use it. 

“If he’s who I think he is, he’s a relative of Andrew’s, I think?” Jeremy commented as he studied their surroundings. He had gone home the night before, deciding that having stayed up chatting with Matt and Dan until long after the cafe’s opening hours, he should probably at least change clothes. Ironically, the clothes he had changed into were nearly identical to the ones he was wearing before, except his jeans were a lighter orange and covered in tasteful rips, as opposed to Jean’s which just tended to tear when he did anything even remotely active. 

“Okay, but why does Matt think he would know where the hidden city is?” Jean asked, trying not to stare.

“Nicky knows everyone and everything. I’m pretty sure he’s where Andrew gets most of his information actually. Don’t tell him I said that though. He likes to pretend he’s mysterious. Say, what do you guys think the hidden city is? Like, I know it’s a new thing and all, but like, it’s just got that air of an old story that’s been passed down for generations, you know? Like, a fairytale almost? I mean, it sounds fake, a hidden city that acts as a safe haven for witches? Where they can live and work the way they would in the human world, but without the threat of being discovered by those who wish to use them for their powers? Total storybook tale!”

“It’s a nice story though,” Jean said quietly. Jeremy was right, it did sound like a fairy tale, or a dream. He thought maybe all stories of people finding peace sounded a bit like dreams though. 

“This is it.” They stopped in front of a cute little indie cafe. Jeremy opened the door and Jean and Kevin followed him. The cafe was mildly busy, but the person running the registers was doodling on a scrap of paper, so it obviously wasn’t too popular at this time of day. Jeremy bounced up to the registers. 

“Hi, Nicky!” he chirped. 

“Oh! You’re Andrew’s friend! Jeremy was it? Are you looking for him? He’s in the corner over there.” They turned and, sure enough, Andrew was sitting in the corner with a coffee, clicking away at his laptop. 

“We were looking for you actually, but I didn’t even know Andrew came here? It’s kind of far from Eden’s isn’t it?” Jeremy asked. 

“Eh, yeah, he and Neil hang out here most days actually. What did you need me for? I’m afraid to tell you I’m taken, Jeremy, as cute as you are.” Nicky winked as Jeremy laughed. Jean felt something twist, somewhere in his gut. Jeremy leaned forward over the counter. 

“We’re looking for the hidden city,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Oh that? Why didn’t you just ask Andrew?”

“We didn’t know he knew?” Kevin said, obviously lost. 

“You didn’t ask.” Andrew appeared from behind him, and Jean was certain that had Keven maintained his usual reflexes after death, he would have jumped at least a foot. “You asked for help getting to the Hall of Prophecy. I gave you help. Next time, ask for what you actually want.” 

“Andrewwww,” Jeremy whined. “We didn’t know what we wanted until we got to the Hall of Prophecy! Please! Take pity on us!” Andrew rolled his eyes at Jeremy’s puppy dog eyes and led them out of the cafe. 

“Fine. Come on, morons. But this is the last thing I do for you! Got it?” Jeremy nodded emphatically and grinned in response. Jean was nearly certain Andrew would not actually turn Jeremy down if he asked for something else later. Maybe the siren blood idea had some merit after all.

Andrew led them through a small arch at the end of an out of the way alley nearby. The arch was obviously infused with magic, and it shimmered as they passed. Jean kind of wanted to stop and study it, was that a distraction charm on it? Or just a non magic repellant? He resisted the urge to stop and continued to follow Andrew. 

“There you have it. The hidden city.”

“This feels very anticlimactic,” Kevin stated. Looking around, Jean could see what he meant. It looked like any other regular neighborhood in the city, the only exception was that most everyone was wearing the traditional garb over their jeans and t-shirts.

“Oh sick!” Jeremy said, looking at the shops. “I didn’t know anyone sold traditional hats anymore!” he said gleefully. 

“Yeah.” Jean stared at a hat in the window. It was nearly identical to the one his father had worn when he was a child. He remembered that hat better than his own father’s face. 

“We should get one!” Jeremy said, and grabbed Jean’s hand and pulled him towards the door before he could actually respond. Jeremy dragged him into the store and started trying on hats at a rapid rate. Jean continued to stare at the hat in the window.

“Do you want to try it on?” the woman at the counter asked him kindly. 

“No I-”

“Oh my god, Jean that one is  _ perfect  _ for you! Look! The embellishments even match your necklaces! Try it on! Try it on!” Jeremy plopped the hat onto his head, and Jean wasn’t sure why he felt his throat close up at the feeling of it. He ran his fingers across the brim. Riko had never let him and Kevin have any traditional witch’s clothing, so the last time Jean had worn a witch’s hat was before the nest, when he had played with his father’s. 

“That looks so good on you Jean! We have to get it! I like this one!” Jeremy modeled a light orange one just a shade darker than his bright jeans. “And look!” Jeremy tapped the hat and grew some vines and pastel pink flowers to wrap around it. 

“Lovely!” The woman behind the counter cheered. “Oh, it’s so nice to meet a plant witch! We haven’t had one around here in ages you know.” Jeremy laughed and rubbed the back of his head. 

“Yeah, I spend a lot of time off regrowing the Amazon these days.” The woman laughed, and Jean marvelled at how easily human interaction came to Jeremy. Jean didn’t know how to just… talk to people. He never felt like he had anything worth saying. Kevin could complain about things for hours on end, and even he had a fake smile that could charm even the hardest of hearts, but Jean had always had an easier time with the dead than he had the living. Maybe it was a side effect of his magic. 

When they finally left the store, it was nearly twenty minutes later, with three new hats, the last of which was dropped unceremoniously on Kevin’s head. 

“Jeremy! You’re here! Last I heard you were in jail!” A small woman waved to them from across the street and smiled serenely as they approached. 

“Renee! You knew about this place too? Why does no one tell me things?” Jeremy pouted momentarily before dropping the charade and perking back up again.”It’s been so long! I haven’t seen you since Belize! Where’s Allison?”

“She’s at home. She’s in charge of dinner tonight, which means she’s probably ordering catering of some sort that she will try and write off as her own cooking, but will forget to actually throw away the packaging.”

“Do this often I see,” Jeremy commented wryly.

“Indeed.” They shared a knowing smile, and Renee turned back to Jean and Kevin.

“Introduce me to your new friends!” 

“Renee, this is Jean and Kevin. Jean, Kevin, this is Renee, my other best friend.” Jean gave her a nod in greeting, and she gave him another all knowing smile in return. It made him feel very seen, and Jean wasn’t sure he liked that.

“It has been far too long! I know! Why don’t you have dinner with us! Tell us what you’ve been up to since you apparently escaped jail!”

“Of course!” Jeremy agreed, then launched into a rant about how the quality of food in jail varied from country to country. Jean could only follow behind them.

“So yeah, we’re not really sure what to do now,” Jeremy finished their tale. He was the only one with food still on his plate, as he had gotten distracted recounting their adventures to Renee and Allison.

“That does sound like a strange quest. Have you considered that perhaps you should begin by making peace with yourselves,” Renee commented thoughtfully

“You mean confront their inner demons or whatever?” Allison asked as she nursed her third glass of wine.

“Or their outer ones. I know nothing about your pasts, but like can always recognize like. Surely you two can think of a person or two that may perhaps need confronting?” Jean knew exactly to whom she was inferring, and he didn’t like it one bit. Was she probably right? Yes. Did that make a difference, not even a little.

What did make a difference was Jeremy’s excited, “Yes! Confront your demons! We should do that! I’ll help!” Jean stared at him for a long moment, knowing full well that had literally anyone else said it, he would have said no without hesitation.

“Fine. We can confront my demons I guess.” Kevin shot him a withering look that was far too knowing for his liking. Jean couldn’t even find it in himself to care when he saw Jeremy’s brilliant smile, however. He locked that thought away to examine at a later date.

It turned out that the later date was that night. He sat up in bed and stared at Kevin, who was reading a book across the room, having no need for sleep. They were back in their little room, with the intention of meeting Jeremy in the morning. At the time, Jean hadn’t known why he was so opposed to the idea of splitting up.

“Kevin.”

“Yes, Jean.”

“I think I have a crush on Jeremy.”

“Finally figured it out, have you?” Kevin turned the page.

“Kevin.”

“Yes, Jean.”

“How in the hell am I supposed to go on this bullshit quest with him tomorrow?”

“Same way you’ve been doing it for the past two days?” 

“Yeah, but that was before.”

“Before you knew you had a crush?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my  _ god _ . If it makes you feel better, he’s been smitten with you since the beginning.”

“That does not make me feel better. Jeremy is too good for me I’m- ” Jean had to dodge Kevin’s book as it came flying at his head.

“If I agree to come with you tomorrow will you shut the hell up?” Jean had never expected Kevin to come. He had never even considered asking Kevin to come, actually. As bad as the nest had been for Jean, it was infinitely worse for Kevin, and he would not ever have asked his friend to place himself in a position where he could potentially end up back in their clutches. It didn’t mean he didn’t want Kevin along though.

“Maybe.”

“No maybes. If I come with you tomorrow, you have to either ask him out or stop talking about him.”

“I- fine.” Jean rolled back over and closed his eyes, trying to forget the memory of Jeremy’s laugh on the wind.

The morning sun shone too brightly for the gloomy atmosphere surrounding Jean and Kevin when Jeremy arrived to pick them up. Even Jeremy was more subdued than usual, though he kept his cheer. Jean wasn’t really sure how Jeremy had figured out what shape his and Kevin’s inner demons took, but he was grateful, as it meant he didn’t have to try and explain, or even speak at all really. Jeremy didn’t ask about Riko, or why Kevin would suddenly start twitching, or why the raven had followed them into his car and sat perched on Kevin’s shoulder the entire ride. The only thing he asked for was the address, and Jean appreciated him even more for that.

In between bouts of nerves, Kevin kept shooting him glares, obviously of the opinion that Jean should just say it and get it out there, but Jean couldn’t. What if Kevin was wrong? What if Jeremy was really just flirty with everyone? If anything, it just made him more keyed up, because that was just another thing to worry about.

“We’re here,” Jeremy said quietly as he pulled his car into the parking lot. The nest was not large, not compared to the city they had just come from, but when Jean and Kevin were kids, the place had felt infinite, like it could go on forever and they would never find the exit. 

Jean was not happy to be back. 

He took a deep breath, let it out. “Kevin should stay out here, just in case. We can’t let him find out you’re well, functional.” Kevin nodded, relieved. 

“Scream or something if you need help I guess?” Kevin responded with a shrug, the raven on his shoulder squawked in agreement.

“Sure.” Jean nodded, as if this was a perfectly normal request.

Sometimes Jean forgot that not everyone had nightmare fueled memories of the nest. That some people lived and worked normal lives here that didn’t involve any torture whatsoever. If Jean had any good memories of the nest, they had been permanently buried beneath the mountain of bad ones that left themselves scarred on both his body and his mind. 

They managed to enter the building without anyone taking a second look at them, but their espionage got a bit trickier the further they got into the complex. Jean knew these corridors though, had travelled through them every day for nearly fifteen years. There were only a handful of people who knew these halls better, and Jean had more experience with staying hidden than all of them. 

His luck ended when they got to Riko’s rooms.

“I’ll stay out here and guard the door. You do what you need to do!” Jeremy gave him a thumbs up, and slid into the shadows of a nearby doorway. If Jean wasn’t so on edge, he might have rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open, sliding silently into the room. Jean had lived in this room. Had shared it with his best friend and his worst enemy. And he had escaped it once. He could do it again. He would do it again. He was never going back to living in fear like this again. Not fear of Riko, who had no magic of his own. Not fear of the Ravens, the professionally trained security who guarded the nest, or any of the other family members who had somehow kept him under their thumb for so long. Jean was never coming back here again.

Unfortunately for him, that was when everything started to go sideways. First, Riko noticed him before he was close enough to use any of the non necromantic spells he knew, then the door was slammed open by two of the Ravens who dragged Jeremy between them as he yelled.

“Ah, Jean. I was wondering when you would come home.” Riko gave him his horrible smarmy smile that spelled trouble for Jeremy should he do anything to retaliate. “Care to join me for dinner?” he asked pleasantly. Jean could only scowl at him and clench his fists. How had it all gone so wrong?

Dinner was not just with Riko it turned out, which would have been unpleasant enough, but they were joined by Tetsuji and Ichirou as well. Jean thought this would be an ideal time to bomb the place - it wasn’t often all of the main line Moriyamas were in one place. But then he caught Jeremy’s eye and suddenly all he could think about was what the wink he received could possibly mean. 

“So Jean, what brings you back into our fold, I’d thought you’d run away for good,” Tetsuji inquired, as if he had ever given a shit about Jean.

“Revenge,” Jean answered honestly. As if on cue, Riko began to cough loudly, long hacking breaths that spoke of severe respiratory problems. He began to wheeze and Ichirou and Tetsuji stood to investigate. Jean would have found the fact that they completely ignored Riko in favor of looking for the source of the issues more ironic if he weren’t so confused. Then Ichirou pulled a leaf from the middle of Riko’s salad. 

“Well well well, that’s clever. How did you manage to plant the hemlock there boys? Hm?” Jean suddenly understood the wink, and vowed to kiss Jeremy at the first opportunity. 

“A magician never reveals his secrets!” Jeremy said cheerfully. 

“Interesting. Unfortunately, this means that neither of you are going to be making it out of here alive. A pity, I could have used you.” Tetsuji reached into his suit, presumably to pull out a gun. Jean had been through this song and dance before, though never on the receiving end.

Before he had even fully drawn his gun however, the raven swooped in from where it had apparently been perched on the beams above the table. Tetsuji let out a shocked cry, and dropped the gun, clutching his face where the bird had slashed at his eyes. The raven swooped back down at Ichirou, but the younger man was ready for it, and it was knocked aside. Before either the raven, or Jean, could recover from shock, Ichirou had an arm around Jeremy’s neck, and a gun of his own to his head.

“Don’t move Jean, or your friend here gets it.” Jean couldn’t move if he wanted to, couldn’t move, couldn’t think, all he could do was stare in shock and terror as Jeremy struggled in Ichirou’s hold. His head filled with white noise, and Jean felt a bit like he was going to pass out. There was no way out, there was no way out, there was no way - his thoughts were echoed, by dozens, maybe even hundreds of souls. 

Jean had known about the souls, the ghosts if you would. He could always sort of hear them, always felt them on the edges of his consciousness. It had never occurred to him to ask them for help. 

He sent his magic into the floorboards, calling out to anything that could answer, and they came at his call. They came in waves, crashing into all three of the Moriyamas, scratching, ripping, and tearing at any part of them they could get their hands on. Most of the ghosts couldn’t do anything to them, they were too weak, or didn’t have enough will to make themselves corporeal, but the ones that were had dealt a significant amount of damage, if the amount of blood splatter on the floor was any indication.

Jeremy was thrown across the room at the appearance of the spirits, and Jean pushed himself back from the table to get to him. 

As he moved toward Jeremy, Kevin appeared in the doorway and stalked towards Tetsuji, who was the only one still moving, picking up one of the terrible gilded candlesticks off the table as he went. He stood before the man as the other spirits held him up. 

“This is for killing my mom,” Kevin said furiously, slamming the candlestick down on Tetsuji’s head with a crack.

Jean finally managed to evade the spirits and Kevin long enough to make his way towards Jeremy, who was already climbing back to his feet. Jean didn’t even need to make it the entire way, because as soon as Jeremy saw him, he barrelled his way into Jean. He gave him a solid hug that knocked the air from his lungs. Jean didn’t even have time to contemplate returning the hug before Jeremy pulled back and planted a kiss directly on his mouth.

“Dude!” he exclaimed when they finally parted. “You did that! That was so fucking cool! Like, dude. You are the coolest person I’ve ever met? Please be my boyfriend. Those ghosts? So cool! I didn't even know you could do that! Wait, did you know you could do that?  _ Bro _ , you have  _ got  _ to let me help you experiment. You realize if you can call up ghosts, you don’t have to actually raise people from the dead anymore! That would make your graverobbing business soooo much more efficient. You know you should really have Renee help you draw up a business plan. She’s really good at that shit and-”

“Jeremy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. I’ll be your boyfriend. Can we go back to kissing?”

“Yes! Absolutely! You have the best ideas! My boyfriend is the best! Oh my god dude, here, feel my heartbeat, it’s going so fast!” Jean rolled his eyes and took matters into his own hands.

**2 years later**

“Jean! Jeremy!” Renee called to them from her place beside Allison on the park bench. Renee had been in charge of the location for this month’s gathering, much to Kevin’s dismay. (He had an ongoing battle with the sun that could only be fixed with specialized healing magic or the strongest sunscreen they could find, applied at regular intervals.) She had chosen a cute little park in the middle of the hidden city for the gathering, and Jean noticed that Neil and Andrew had already set up the tables for the large collection of food and alcohol that people would be bringing. Mostly alcohol. 

Jean and Jeremy would be hosting the next gathering, as it would be coinciding with both the official opening of the new business he was starting with the help of Laila and Alvarez, and the move in for their new house. (It was a creepy gothic house near the entrance to the hidden city, and right next to the graveyard. Jean loved it because the ghosts could be convinced to help with cleaning occasionally, and Jeremy loved it because it already had a large number of poisonous and probably illegal plants taking over the yard and growing up the walls.) Jean had never thought he would be the sort of person who had a boyfriend and a house and a - mostly legal - business, but here he was two years later with all of it. 

Kevin had moved into his own place shortly after what they liked to refer to as the ‘nest incident’ and worked as a bartender for Andrew at Eden’s. Andrew and Neil complained about him constantly, but they had also been the ones to offer him the small apartment above the bar to live in when they had moved into a bigger place the year before, so Jean was pretty sure they were just posturing.

“What took you guys so long?” Allison questioned them as they finished dropping off the potato salad they had brought, and sat down on the grass. 

“Family emergency.”

“How can you guys have a family emergency? Neither of you have families.”

“Sure we do! We have a Kevin!” Jeremy told her. 

Jean nodded in agreement. "Sometimes a family is just you, your anarchist boyfriend, your zombie best friend, and the most likely possessed corvid that keeps following you."

“You still haven’t figured out what the deal is with that thing?” Matt asked as he and Dan walked up behind them, both laden with dishes.

“No. I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of benign spirit though. Either that or an omen of death. Could go either way honestly.” 

“So what was your emergency?” Renee asked, bringing them back on track.

“Oh, Kevin fell down the stairs and broke his leg again, so we had to take him to Aaron’s before we came. They should be here in a bit.”

“Why Aaron? Wouldn’t you be the better choice for patching him up?” Dan asked, taking the beer Matt handed her and sitting down in the grass beside him.

“I mean, I could, but Aaron likes to use him as a test subject, and he does a better job anyway. There’s a reason Kevin still has that weird scar around his eye.” Jean shrugged lightly and pointedly ignored the ghost pulling on his sleeve. In a day or two he would come back and try and help her move on, as he had with the spirits in the nest. In four days, he had a lunch date with Laila and Alvarez, where they would continue to ask him to spill his secrets, and he would continue to refuse them. In a week or so he would go to Eden’s with Jeremy and bother Kevin. In two weeks he would go to the model train convention with Dan, and play bodyguard for her beloved train. In a month he would have his entire friend group in his new house, talking and laughing the night away, as they were wont to do. But for today, he was content to sit in the grass next to his boyfriend and watch the clouds drift by, wondering how he had managed to break his curse without even noticing. 

“What are you thinking about?” Jeremy asked him quietly, giving him a little nudge. 

“Do you really think I broke my curse?” 

“Does it matter?” Jeremy asked curiously. 

Jean thought about it for a moment. Did it matter if he were still cursed? He had everything he would never have even hoped to ask for, would the curse be able to change that, after all this time? Kevin arrived, Aaron and his family following shortly behind them. He immediately got into an argument with Neil.

“No. No I don’t think it does,” Jean replied.

Jeremy laced their fingers together and set his head on Jean’s shoulder. “Good.”

  
  



End file.
